Actual Budget vs Budgetwarrior

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureActual BudgetBudgetwarrior
CategoryBudgeting & FinanceBudgeting & Finance
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageTypeScriptC++
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcebinary, source
GitHub stars★ 28,019★ 119
First released20222013
ReplacesYNAB, MintYNAB, Mint

Why pick each one

Choose Actual Budget if…

  • Snappy offline-first experience
  • Privacy-focused sync
Actual Budget details

Choose Budgetwarrior if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Written in C++
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Budgetwarrior details

Frequently asked questions

Is Actual Budget or Budgetwarrior better?

Actual Budget is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Budgetwarrior if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Actual Budget and Budgetwarrior free and open-source?

Yes. Actual Budget is licensed under MIT and Budgetwarrior under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Actual Budget and Budgetwarrior with Docker?

Actual Budget: yes. Budgetwarrior: check the project docs for container support.

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